Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed met Wednesday night with Midtown residents concerned with recent crime in their neighborhood and promised more resources to combat crime not just in Midtown but citywide.
“I absolutely understand the urgency of what is going on,” Reed told the neighbors.
“We just won another grant. We’re going to add more police officers. We have a cadet class in training.”
According to Channel 2 Action News, the mayor also announced a $25,000 reward in the armed robbery of a Midtown mother of four in front of her young daughter Saturday afternoon.
“He … put the gun on my head and said give me your keys,” the mother told the television station. “And my 7-year-old daughter was in the car.”
The victim’s husband watched the robbery unfold from inside the family’s Charles Allen Drive home.
“As I’m looking out the window,” Aaron Coe told Channel 2, “she’s on her knees with a gun to her head and they’re trying to get the keys.”
The suspects fled when Coe started out the door.
According to Channel 2, the mayor said the main problem is with repeat offenders and the sentences they are handed.
“I don’t mind you all holding me accountable,” Reed said, “but when our police officers arrest someone 30 times and they go before a judge and they walk for $200, they come back and rob you again.”
Just hours after the mayor and city council addressed the neighborhood meeting, a man was shot in the hand on a Midtown street less than a mile away.
That shooting happened about 11:30 p.m. on Peachtree Place near Peachtree Street, police said.
Elijah Payton, 45, and another man “were engaged in a verbal dispute over a Red Bull energy drink and the altercation turned physical,” Atlanta police spokeswoman Elizabeth Espy said.
Payton had a handgun, “and during the struggle, the gun discharged and Payton was shot in his hand,” Espy said.
“Payton was determined to be the aggressor and he was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon,” she said. Payton was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in stable condition.
Reed is scheduled to meet with Midtown residents next week. Atlanta police Chief George Turner is expected to join Reed at that meeting, which will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Grace United Methodist Church, 458 Ponce De Leon Ave. NE.
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